Sunday, December 18, 2011

I believe we have survived the family Christmas gathering. After cooking, shopping, cleaning, and decorating since Thanksgiving, Christmas exploded all over my house last night.

The tree began to accumulate gifts underneath early in the day:

Everyone gathered around 4:00. The son-in-law played "doggie golf" with the black Lab (the dog loves this: you lob the tennis ball out into the backyard with a golf club and he'll fetch it as long as you can stand to play):

Steve and his son:

Inside, this was a popular spot:

We got my mom over and she held out for a while. She enjoyed seeing the grandkids and great grandkids. We took her back home when she got tired:

My daughter will hate this picture but I think she's so cute. She parked herself by the Chex Mix and I sent her home later with a huge bag full:

When it was time to eat we all feasted on ham, au-gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, and wild rice 'n shrimp casserole. For the sweet tooth there was fudge, pralines, rum cake, fruitcake cookies and gingerbread men:

After dinner it was time for presents...:

...which the kids loved:

The guys had to keep a check on the Dallas game:

There was lots of visiting and playing with new toys:

But eventually things wound down and Christmas is now pretty much in the books for this year.

On Christmas Day we will have a quiet day and exchange a few last gifts. The Teenager will get his haul then. On the 26th the tree will be on the curb!

All in all it was a fun evening! Two more days of school and I'm off for a couple of weeks for some much needed rest!

And now? Time to catch up on what's been happening in the world this week.

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I am a Conservative writer and high school English teacher in Shreveport and also work as a free-lance proofreader. I've been published at The American Thinker and had photographs published in Bayou Bucks magazine and other local publications. I like dogs better than most people.